The Pastrami Sandwich Revelation
by What's a hickey
Summary: One shot about the bond between mother and son. Sometimes a joke isn't always funny.


**A/N – This is for Nicole and Roxanne because they wanted this fic and I disdain the jokes about Mrs. Wolowitz as well, so here it is. This will only be a one-shot. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TBBT or its characters.**

* * *

"Stuart, could you make me a pastrami sandwich please?"

Hearing Debbie's lunch request from the living room, he stopped cleaning the dishes and started gathering all the necessary condiments and fixings from the fridge to make her favorite sandwich.

Grabbing some white bread from the right end of the counter, he began by spreading a light amount of mayo across the slices, carefully trying to keep the condiment from getting on the counter.

Satisfied with the mayo, Stuart started adding the hearty meat, with meticulous and slow movements, almost as if he worked at a delicatessen his whole life. Once the pastrami was on the bread, he added a slice of cheese and put the two halves together, ready to bring to Mrs. Wolowitz.

Grabbing a napkin from besides the toaster, Stuart left the kitchen and made his way to the living room, a plate full of pastrami goodness and a glass of lemonade in hand.

"Here you go Debbie, your pastrami sandwich just the way you like it."

Accepting the plate from Stuart, Mrs. Wolowitz couldn't help but get a bit emotional while she ate her lunch in silence.

These past couple of months had been wonderful with the previous comic book storeowner helping her around the house, but Debbie still felt that something wasn't quite right.

Not one to like change, Debbie's world was thrown for a loop when her little Howie wanted to move out of the house. That had been over a year ago and it still made her feel extremely lonely at times. Her whole world had revolved around her son, but now he didn't need her as much as he did before. She knew that he was grown up now and ready to start his own life with Bernadette, but at times she still wished that her baby boy would come back to her.

However, what hurt her the most wasn't him leaving the house. She knew that he liked to make jabs about her being overweight behind her back, even going as far as to wish she were dead. Debbie never said anything to Howard, instead keeping all her hurt feelings bottled up inside her.

Whenever her son came to visit with his wife, Debbie would plaster a smile on her face, laughing at all the self-depreciating humor Howard threw her way, never letting him see how much those "jokes" hurt her, choosing instead to laugh at herself to cover up those feelings.

But as soon as they left, Debbie let her guard down, usually sitting in the bathroom crying or, on the most painful of occasions, stuffing her face with a pint of Ben & Jerry's Rocky Road. She hated herself for not confronting Howard about these cruel remarks, but her fear of losing him, like she lost her husband, overshadowed the need to reveal all to her son.

Luckily she now had Stuart to keep her company.

Not only was he a massive help in the housekeeping aspects of her life, he was someone she could trust, a confidant of sorts. After suffering with these feeling for so long, Debbie thought it was time she needed a sounding board for her emotions.

Putting the half-eaten sandwich on the coffee table, Debbie turned towards Stuart, who was still sitting on the floral couch, never returning to the kitchen to finish the dishes.

"Stuart, I need to tell you something and you have to promise to keep it just between us. Okay?"

Stuart had never heard Mrs. Wolowitz take on such a serious tone with him, so in his gut he felt she was going to tell him something extremely important.

"Sure Debbie. What did you want to tell me?"

She didn't know where to start, so she just went with the first thing that popped into her head.

"This may be a little personal but I don't think it's healthy for me to keep this to myself. Seeing as you are Howard's friend, I'm assuming he's said some things about me, yes?"

Not wanting to say yes, Stuart begrudgingly nodded his head at her question.

"So you've probably heard a joke or two at my expense, and while I've never said anything about it to Howie, I just needed someone to know after all these years of holding these feelings in. He doesn't know but all those little jabs me makes about my weight really hurt. "

At this point, Debbie was in tears and didn't want to talk anymore. He respected this and helped her up the stairs to her room in an amicable silence, every so often patting her gently on the back to comfort her. When they arrived at the top of the staircase, Debbie told him she wanted a nap and to be left alone for a while.

Respecting her privacy, Stuart gave her a quick, consoling hug and made his way down the stairs back to the kitchen with a purpose.

Knowing he should respect Debbie's wishes and not tell Howard, Stuart felt it was too important for her son not to know about the harmful effects of the mocking.

Using the home phone, he dialed Howard's cell, deciding it was high time he find out.

* * *

The man in question was sitting in the Caltech cafeteria, enjoying his extra large chocolate brownie, and arguing with his friends over the idea of a female Thor that had recently come out.

Hearing his phone ring, he put down his fork and gave Raj a hand signal to quiet down their chatter while he answered the phone.

Seeing as the caller ID was coming from his Ma's house, panic struck Howard at that moment, his brain running through all the possible scenarios for the call. By the third ring, he had calmed himself down enough to answer the call and was still high strung as he heard Stuart's voice at the other end.

"Stuart is something wrong with Ma?" He may have joked about wanting her dead, but those were always jokes. Never would there be a day when he actually wanted to see his beloved mother dead or seriously hurt. She was there for him when his dad left them. She was all he had for a long time, until he'd met Bernadette.

"Nothing deadly like that, I just think you need to come over and talk to her this afternoon. She's pretty upset and I don't think I'm the one she wants to talk to right now."

"I'll be over right after work. Thanks for letting me know Stuart."

Lunchtime passed by in a blur for the engineer, his mind wandering away from his three friend's conversation. Surely enough it was time for him to return to the engineering lab, but Howard felt as though he was on autopilot, just going through the motions at work for the rest of the day. He was wracking his brain thinking of what could have upset his mom this badly.

The last time he had seen her this distraught was right after he had moved out for good. He came to stay on weekends sometimes, but he had been slowly weaning her off the idea that her baby boy was going to live with her forever. Less and less would he start staying on weekends until eventually he no longer stayed at the house at all.

Her recent injury caused him to have to stay with her for a little while, but luckily he had hired Stuart, seemingly solving his problem of a caretaker for the moment. He was able to go back to his apartment and live with Bernadette with some peace, hoping that his mother would feel less lonely with Stuart there to keep her company.

Now with her truly upset again, Howard wondered if leaving her in her time of need was the right idea.

This was all he could think about as he got into his Mini Cooper and drove to his mother's house.

* * *

The first thing Howard noticed when he walked through the door of his childhood home was the plate with the half-eaten pastrami sandwich on the coffee table. Never had his mother left food, let alone a pastrami sandwich, on her plate. He wondered why Stuart hadn't cleared it away, but he guessed he left it out in case his Ma wanted to eat the rest of it.

Emerging from the dining room, Howard saw Stuart with a wipe and table cleaner in hand.

"Where's Ma?"

"She's upstairs in her room. She went up there to take a nap and she wanted to be alone. I'm sure she'll make an exception for you though."

"Thanks Stuart…for everything. I owe you so much for living here and taking good care of her."

"I like Debbie and I like it here. It's better than sulking about the shop. Plus my doctor has seen some improvement so he's thinking of lowering my Zoloft dosage."

"That's great buddy." With that Howard made his way up the familiar staircase, two steps at a time, while Stuart went back to cleaning the mahogany table in the dining room.

Howard walked up to his mother's door with trepidation and a fear of the unknown in every step. Knocking twice on the door, he mentally prepared himself for what was to come.

"Stuart I told you I wanted to be alone please."

"Ma, it's me."

"Come in."

Trying to choke back her sobs, Debbie was surprised to see her son standing here in the flesh. He wasn't supposed to visit her till the weekend.

"Howie what are you doing here? You and Bernie aren't supposed to come until this weekend."

But Howard wasn't paying attention to his mother's simple question. Instead he focused on the mini mountain of used tissues accumulating by his mother's bedside and on the bed itself. When he looked at his Ma's face, all he saw was pain and sadness, enough to shake him to his core. Her eyes were swollen and puffy, presumably from crying for hours. Her nose was runny and her voice sounded hoarse.

"Ma…What's wrong?"

He sunk into the bed right next to her, the mother-son duo both on the brink of tears from seeing the other.

"Stuart wasn't supposed to tell you I was upset."

"Ma, don't worry about that right now. It was the right thing to do and I'm glad he told me. So why are you upset? Please tell me Ma, I'm your son and I love you. I don't like seeing you this upset."

"Well if you love me so much, why do you say those cruel and hurtful jokes about me being overweight? You think I already don't know? I don't need you to make me feel worse by making fun of me about it. If you must know, the only reason I became this overweight was I was so damn miserable and alone after your father left. You were the light of my life and I was so happy to have you, but I felt I wouldn't be a good mother to you if I didn't coddle and baby you all the time. I just didn't want you to be hurt and let down like I was."

Howard couldn't hold in his tears much longer, letting the salty teardrops escape his eyes as he leaned into his Ma, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Ma, if I knew how much those jokes hurt your feelings I would have never continued saying them. I'm sorry you had to go through that alone and I just want you to know that you were the best mother a guy could ask for. I can never fill the hole that dad made when he left us, but I will spend the rest of my life trying. I know you wanted me to live with you forever, but I want to tell you that I'm very happy with Bernadette and you don't need to protect me from her. You've protected me my entire life, it's about time I start protecting you for a change."

"Howie I just want you to be happy."

"I am happy Ma and it's thanks to you. You raised a happy and healthy child by yourself and for that I am forever grateful."

By this point they were both bawling their eyes out. All the pent up feelings came bursting loose in that moment, but the two couldn't be happier. They finally understood each other's feelings and that was the best feeling in the world.

After 10 minutes of a good hug and cry fest, the little family of two broke apart, wiping their faces of tears with great ferocity.

"Why don't I go make us pastrami sandwiches since your other one has probably gone bad by now?"

"Howie that sounds perfect."

Assisting his Ma as she slowly made her way down the steps, Howard felt that from here, this new, adult relationship with his mom could only grow stronger.

Debbie sat in the same spot on the couch as lunch, feeling better than she's felt in many years. Her and her son finally understood each other and she couldn't wait to see him start a new journey in his life with Bernadette, grandchildren or no grandchildren.

Howard appeared from the kitchen, juggling a plate of pastrami sandwiches and two glasses of lemonade in his hands.

"Here let me grab those glasses." Ridding his of the burden of the sweet beverage, Debbie set both of the glasses on the table, with coasters of course.

With both happily munching away on their pastrami, both mother and son felt a sense of relief, ready to tackle the many challenges that life had to throw at them.

_Together._

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**A/N – Wow I had tears in my eyes while writing this fic and I hope you feel moved by this fic as well. I'm tired of Howie making those remarks about his mom and I hope they stop in the near future because I cringe every time I hear one. **

**Reviews are appreciated cause I like to see of I should write Shamy or Lenny in a deeper, more emotional fic like this. Thanks!**

**xx Katie**


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